Sex-ed bill stirs debate in state

For Newton resident Dan Kiley, it was not what he said, but what he didn't say that could have made a difference in his son's life.

His son, now 34, has HIV and works to educate others about how to prevent sexually transmitted infections and diseases -- knowledge Kiley is sorry he did not share with his child.

"It's the responsibility of parents to give that information, but there's no question in my mind that most parents don't," said Kiley, who now teaches sex education at the Fessenden School, an independent boarding and day school serving grades pre-K to 9 in Newton, using a curriculum that teaches contraception and protection against disease. "It's important for schools to provide a foundation and safety net."

But in Massachusetts, it's up to school districts to decide if sex education is taught and what information the curriculum contains.

A group of legislators wants to change that with a bill that would set curricula for schools that offer sex ed.

Lessons would be required to include "age-appropriate" information on healthy relationships, the benefits of abstinence, and the use of contraception methods to help prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

The bill grew from concern that some school districts had abstinence-only curricula.

"It was brought to the committee's attention that some districts do not offer what we would call comprehensive sex education," said state Rep.

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Alice Peisch, D-Wellesley, a co-chairwoman of the Committee on Joint Education.

The bill, introduced in 2013 and again last year, cleared the Senate in November and is now in the House Ways and Means Committee.

"Some kids are making bad decisions that have lifelong consequences, because they were not given information at a time when they were experiencing different things and hearing different things," said state Sen. Sal DiDomenico, D-Everett, a sponsor of the bill.

Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia have laws setting standards for sex-education programs, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a U.S. research institution that advocates for health and reproductive rights.

In Massachusetts, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education offers a Comprehensive Health Curriculum Framework that suggests what students should know about sexuality at certain grade levels.

At the end of fifth grade, students are expected to know about the human reproductive system and the terminology for different sexual orientations.

By the end of eighth grade, students should be able to describe the different methods for preventing pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and sexually transmitted infections, and identify instances of sexual harassment.

But the framework is a guideline and not a mandate, according to DESE spokeswoman Jacqueline Reis.

State law does require school districts to allow parents to opt their children out of sex ed, which the new bill would also require.

Districts that already adopt the state framework would be considered in compliance with the law.

In Lowell schools, the Healthy Futures program teaches middle-school students about the benefits of abstinence while also giving information on contraceptives.

Staff from the program teach the curriculum in all eight middle schools.

"There's a nice relationship, and kids can be able to ask them questions that they're a little nervous to be asking their teachers," said Martha Cohn, the district's coordinator of science and social studies.

Cohn said very few students opt out of the program.

At Leominster's Sky View Middle School, health educator Jeff Billingham covers sexual education for two to three days in the 25 days he has with each class.

Billingham said he focuses on puberty changes in sixth grade, anatomically-based topics in seventh grade, and actual pregnancy prevention in eighth.

His curriculum is abstinence-based, but also lists other contraceptive methods.

"The way that we usually talk about it is we try to list it by efficacy," he said. "We say to them, what's the only 100 percent way to make sure you don't have pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections? Obviously, they know even then (that) not having sex is the way to do that."

He argued that teaching both abstinence and contraceptive use helps students.

"To tell them that the only way to not get pregnant is to not have sex doesn't seem plausible in their lives and the way they're living," he said.

The bill has garnered support from state Sen. Jamie Eldridge, of Acton, who argues that sexual education is uneven throughout the state.

"I am a believer that the more education you can provide students about sex education, reproductive information, I think the better decisions that young people make," he said.

Proponents of the proposed law say more standards are needed.

A 2013 survey conducted by the state Education Department found that 57 percent of high-school students said they were taught how to use condoms in school, and 85 percent said they received instruction about HIV/AIDS.

Of the 5,519 students at 57 high schools surveyed, 38 percent reported having sex during their lifetime; 3 percent reported having sex before age 13.

Glen Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, which represents all but two school boards in the state, said the bill is an important step.

"This is a very perilous time for kids to be out there unarmed as to the facts of how to protect themselves from disease, illness and unwanted pregnancy," Koocher said.

But critics of the bill argue that it deprives communities the right to choose a sex-education program that is best for their schools.

"I trust local school committees to make the right decisions," said Andrew Beckwith, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, a Woburn-based organization that advocates for traditional values. "Why take control out of the hands of parents and local educators on an issue this sensitive?"

Opponents also argue the measure allows Planned Parenthood, which supports the bill, to push a pro-choice agenda by promoting its sex-education curriculum, called "Get Real," which would meet the proposed requirements.

"Get Real" is included on a state list of recommended sex-ed curricula. Programs on the list also provide exercises with hypothetical situations involving sex and drug use.

That could encourage just the behavior it is supposed to prevent among students as early as middle school, according to the Massachusetts Family Institute, which promotes abstinence outside of marriage.

But Dr. Jennifer Childs-Roshak, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, said the measure ensures that schools wouldn't rely on abstinence as the only lesson to teach students.

"When you look at the public-health data around abstinence-only programs, they do not work," Childs-Roshak said. "They're not an effective, evidence-based education that actually results in reduced STIs or reduced teen pregnancy."

In 2007, a study commissioned by the federal government that reviewed four abstinence-only curriculums found that adolescents enrolled in the programs were no more likely to wait to have sex or abstain than students that did not receive abstinence-only instruction.

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